


Day Seventeen: America & Maxon

by claryherondale



Category: The Selection Series - Kiera Cass
Genre: Announcements, Castles, Celebrations, F/M, Fluff, Holidays, Kings & Queens, Marriage, No Smut, One Shot, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 08:52:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8884672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/claryherondale/pseuds/claryherondale
Summary: Day 17 of My 31 Favorite ShipsQueen America makes an announcement to all of Illéa on the Report.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A little bit of Maxerica fluff, enjoy!

I watched my husband as he stood in front of Illéa. He looked regal and sophisticated, sharp features and blond hair that only I knew the softness to. I sat behind him a little ways, next to Aspen and a few other people in higher ranks under the constitutional monarchy. Maxon articulated himself as eloquently as ever. His status as a king hadn’t been doubted since the day Queen Amberly and King Clarkson died, leaving him in the ultimate position of power. 

We wed soon after, and May moved into the palace, while Maxon and I gifted my mother and other siblings with houses in Angeles. Despite everything, they were still my blood. I wanted to be able to give them good lives. May loved it in the castle. I couldn’t even count how many strawberry tarts she had devoured since her arrival. 

And for whatever reason, Illéa didn’t hate having me as their queen. In fact, according to the press, I was quite popular. I didn’t understand it, but I was glad that my country didn’t loathe having to be ruled in part by me. At odd moments, I would miss Celeste. Even though we were at each other’s throats for a lot of the Selection process, we grew to understand each other. And then I watched her get shot. Sometimes I wished she was still here to help me pick out the best dress for every occasion, or to help me be more personable in front of the media, since she was used to that kind of attention.

But she was gone. Maxon and I, as well as most of the other girls that had been a part of the Selection, went to her funeral. There was more to her than the stubborn, bad-mannered front she put up. She was just trying to win; it was a game to her, with the prize of being a queen. There wasn’t an element of love. Celeste and Maxon deserved love, but they weren’t right for one another. Maxon and I both spoke at her wake, and it was attended heavily by admirers, friends, wannabe suitors, and the press alike.

“My wife, Queen America, would like to say a few words on tonight’s Report, so welcome her on your televisions kindly, Illéa,” Maxon said to the camera.

I got up from where I was sitting, passing my husband in the process. My dress was long and noble, a green that complimented my red hair, which was partially up and halfway curling around the frame of my face in ringlets. 

Maxon and I were still young, but we were respected. We knew what we were doing. We knew to do what was best for this country. But for the moment, there was a slight lull in the intensity of ruling.

“Good evening, Illéa,” I said. I smiled at the camera. I was getting much more used to facing the public like this, even if not exactly directly, on a daily basis. “I wanted to wish you all a happy holiday season. Christmas this year will only be my second in the palace, but it is certainly one to remember. That being said, I have an announcement to make. I have not told many people this yet—only my husband and a couple of doctors know.” I took a deep breath and looked directly into the camera, ignoring May, Aspen, Lucy, and Marlee’s eyes all trained on me as they wondered what I didn’t tell them about yet. “I found out yesterday that I am pregnant with twins.”

Even if I couldn’t hear the country’s reaction, I could hear the response in the room. Everyone around me was cheering and full of joy. I couldn’t stop smiling.

Maxon came back up behind me, resting his hand lightly on my spine as he spoke to the country: “My wife and I are so excited to bring new life into this world, and we hope that you will share this journey with us. Happy holidays.” He flashed a brilliant smile and then allowed Gavril to close the Report.

“I certainly was unaware of this, but I think I can speak for all of us when I say we couldn’t be happier for King Maxon and Queen America!” Gavril began. “Just one more thing to be joyous about this holiday season . . .”

I tuned out of the closing statements while Maxon whisked me out of the studio with everyone else, all of whom were still reacting to the news, so that they could speak to us properly. May and Marlee were the first to embrace me.

“Congratulations!” said Marlee.

“I can’t believe I’m going to be an aunt!” May exclaimed.

Lucy wrapped me in her arms and said, “I am so happy for you, America,” then went on to hug Maxon, while Aspen came up to me.

“I’m very happy for you, Mer. You deserve this, after everything. You deserve a good life with him,” he told me.

“It’s a life with you, too. You and Lucy.” I smiled. “Thank you, Aspen.”

We embraced, and then I had to face my mother showing up at the palace’s doors after hearing the news on the Report—and her backlash for me not telling her before I told the whole country. Regardless, she was happy for us.

After a while, Maxon pulled me back up to our bedroom, knowing how exhausted I was but how I was also not willing to be the one to cut off all of the congratulatory celebrations filled with champagne that I could not drink and food I wanted to devour, considering I was now eating for three. 

When Maxon shut the door behind us, he didn’t bother to turn on the bedroom light. He simply went over to the curtains and pulled them open, allowing the silver brightness of the moon to pour all over our room. It illuminated the many photographs put up all over the walls—pictures where I saw flashes of my bright hair and my smile; I saw people and places all over the palace captured and posted there. With a moment of silence between us after all of the cheer, we both took a breath and laughed in the darkness. Maxon smiled at me and then dropped to his knees gracefully, his hands grazing my covered and, momentarily, flat stomach. He pressed a tender kiss to my abdomen, where our babies were steadily growing.

Maxon stood back up and kissed me with unmatched lovingness. 

“America, my love,” he whispered to me in the quietness, “I hope you know it was never a choice. You were always the one.”

I laughed a little bit at the sound of that, after all of the months of uncertainty and all of the difficulty. I knew he meant it. He had told me over and over again, in the short time we were engaged and still to this day, that he knew I was the person he wanted to choose the moment we had our first conversation.

I didn’t know quite that soon. I still had Aspen in my heart then. But the Selection changed me. I grew up during it—I grew out of my first love, which was a childhood dream that could have never come to fruition. This was life, but this was also a fantasy, one that I had never even thought about as a child growing up in Carolina. 

“It was a choice for me, you know that,” I said. “But I chose myself. And I made the right decision. I love you more than anything in this world.”

He smiled and kissed me. “I love you too, America.”

And we lay down on the bed in the moonlight, enclosed in one another’s arms, and Maxon pressed his lips against my shoulder as he rucked up my thin shirt so that he could touch my stomach, feeling the new life blossoming within me.

**Author's Note:**

> Hint for tomorrow's ship:  
> her insanity is actually power
> 
> (right now, I'm thinking it will be smut)


End file.
